Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

boogiejuice69 The plot jumps all over the place and makes it a confusing watch, trying to figure out how, what, who and why this scene is happening is a struggle. Shame as the cast, photography and score are all first class. Walter Hill's script (8/10) deserved a more experienced director who is great with the cast but cannot make a coherent story. The direction and editing are a master class in how not to make a film. If your a fan of seventies film noir then there is much to still enjoy, i liked Robert Culp's scene in the strip joint where is hangdog face works a treat. And it's always fun watching actors when they are pretty young - James Woods and Michael Moriarty look younger than the socks i'm wearing.

DKosty123 There are several things which are attractive from this film.The pairing of Robert Culp (also directing) with Bill Cosby again. They were very good on televisions I Spy and are just as good here.The nostalgic look at the LA Colesium with footage of a 1972 Rams-Falcons game including Rams Punter Pat Studstill and some vintage Dodger Footage, Culp sneaking in a line from one of the female co-stars telling Cosby he has a bad sense of humor.The action is pretty good and the photography are strong. The plot while predictable is OK. There is a lot of gunfire but not as much blood as the Clint Eastwood films of the same period.Film noir from the 1970's.

robb_772 A complex and intricate crime thriller, the grim violence and downbeat tone of this film will come as a major surprise to fans of the popular tongue-in-television series "I Spy," which also starred Bill Cosby and Robert Culp. Culp actually positioned himself in the director's chair for this outing (it remains his sole feature as a director), and the usually light-hearted actor proves himself to be surprisingly apt at crafting such moody and atmospheric entertainment. Culp also manages to effectively direct himself in one of his least mannered performances, and (best of all) elicits a terrific performance from Cosby. For those of you who are only familiar with the man from years of playing Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable and appearing in those heinous Jell-o pudding commercials, the cynicism and weariness of Cosby's performance will be a revelation – and, yes, he is completely believable as a tough guy.The screenplay by Walter Hill (who also penned scripts for 48 HOURS and ALIENS) is marvelously complex, and never insults the intelligence of viewers. There are a massive amount of characters that come in and out of the film (this is one of the only films I've ever seen where the end credits read like an organizational flow chart), and much of the film's plot doesn't finally fall into place until the second and third acts. Thankfully, both Hill and Culp are not afraid to ward off impatient viewers, and take plenty of time in establishing their intriguing set-up. The emerging film is intense and mature, and falls just behind IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and TAXI DRIVER as the apex of modern film noir.Even though I truly believe this is a great and underrated film, I will fully admit that it may not be possible for me to be truly unbiased towards it. Matt Bennett, who memorably plays Fatboy, was my Great-Uncle. The intensity and menace that Matt brought to the role has always impressed me, and he was so convincing in the role that it basically type-cast him as insane villains for the rest of his career. I would probably love the film for his performance alone, but I did try to be as objective as possible.

inspectors71 In the grand scheme of movie things, there are probably a million movies that will be considered better than Hickey and Boggs, but this almost-missed 1972 crime drama that reunites Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, the two stars of the popular TV series, I Spy, has more than enough golden flecks to justify looking for it on Amazon.Al Hickey (Cosby) and Frank Boggs (Culp) are two down-on-their-luck private dicks who share the honors of being fired by the LAPD and having very little to fall back upon . Although the plot sounds hopelessly clichéd (the loot from a bloody armored car robbery resurfaces in LA, and a melting-pot of gangster/corporate suits, black revolutionaries, Mexican immigrants, murderous-but-not- brilliant hit-men, and hysterically angry detectives come after the all-but-divorced Hickey and the alcoholic, pole-dancer-addicted Boggs) screenwriter Walter Hill and director Culp make the viewer care about these two lost and lonely working stiffs who used to be proud, but who are now desperately threadbare.I Spy was light and fluffy. Hickey and Boggs bombed at the box office because viewers were expecting a more of the same, a dramedy, but there's damned little humor in this film. Yet, the performances of and the chemistry between Bill Cosby and Robert Culp are so very believable that the audience is left jittery from the suspense of where and how the "torpedoes" will strike again. On a personal level, Hickey's marriage to the beautiful Rosalind Cash is a shambles, and Boggs has all but given up fighting his addictions to booze, girls, and mid-sixties Ford Thunderbirds.It's so palpable, so frantic for these men as they try to make a buck, defend themselves from the baddies and the goodies, and get past the professional and personal chaos they have helped to create.There is an excruciating moment when Hickey's mother-in-law, the always watchable Isabel Sanford, stands on the porch of her daughter's house, the site of the latest "torpedo" attack, and verbally disembowels Cosby--while Cosby's daughter desperately tries to keep her sanity by mowing the lawn--and you can't quite hear Sanford's anguished, angry voice over the highway noise. The look of defeat on Cosby's face is his character writ small.Meanwhile, Culp sits in a strip club, destroying his liver, and is almost in tears as a dancer with dead eyes flirts with him. Like Cosby, he is alone and vanquished. Even the strippers don't care.Although the ending is stolidly predictable, the viewer is relieved to see that there is some hope for Al and Frank. There is a lot of shooting, with everyone from the Panther-types to a thoroughly vicious Michael Moriarty either eviscerated or burned to a crisp. They walk off down the beach, slogging through the sand, and, hopefully, they will find a way to repair their lives.Yeah, Hickey and Boggs is an artsy downer, but, as I said before, there are enough moments of style and substance in this underestimated film noir to make it both watchable and, to the patient viewer, emotionally accessible. There is a line in Hickey and Boggs, after a nasty firefight in the LA Coliseum, where Culp, instead of saying something pithy or sarcastic about the torpedoes, simply fumes, "I gotta get a bigger gun. I can't hit a damned thing."That's a little gold fleck right there.